This invention pertains to the field of semiconductor non-volatile data storage system architectures and their methods of operation, and has application to data storage systems based on flash electrically erasable and programmable read-only memories (EEPROMs).
A common application of flash EEPROM devices is as a mass data storage subsystem for electronic devices. Such subsystems are commonly implemented as either removable memory cards that can be inserted into multiple host systems or as non-removable embedded storage within the host system. In both implementations, the subsystem includes one or more flash devices and often a subsystem controller.
Flash EEPROM devices are composed of one or more arrays of transistor cells, each cell capable of non-volatile storage of one or more bits of data. Thus flash memory does not require power to retain the data programmed therein. Once programmed however, a cell must be erased before it can be reprogrammed with a new data value. These arrays of cells are partitioned into groups to provide for efficient implementation of read, program and erase functions. A typical flash memory architecture for mass storage arranges large groups of cells into erasable blocks, wherein a block contains the smallest number of cells (unit of erase) that are erasable at one time.
In one commercial form, each block contains enough cells to store one sector of user data plus some overhead data related to the user data and/or to the block in which it is stored. The amount of user data included in a sector is the standard 512 bytes in one class of such memory systems but can be of some other size. Because the isolation of individual blocks of cells from one another that is required to make them individually erasable takes space on the integrated circuit chip, another class of flash memories makes the blocks significantly larger so there is less space required for such isolation. But since it is also desired to handle user data in much smaller sectors, each large block is often further partitioned into individually addressable pages that are the basic unit for reading and programming user data (unit of programming and/or reading). Each page usually stores one sector of user data, but a page may store a partial sector or multiple sectors. A “sector” is used herein to refer to an amount of user data that is transferred to and from the host as a unit.
The subsystem controller in a large block system performs a number of functions including the translation between logical addresses (LBAs) received by the memory sub-system from a host, and physical block numbers (PBNs) and page addresses within the memory cell array. This translation often involves use of intermediate terms for a logical block number (LBN) and logical page. The controller also manages the low level flash circuit operation through a series of commands that it issues to the flash memory devices via an interface bus. Another function the controller performs is to maintain the integrity of data stored to the subsystem through various means, such as by using an error correction code (ECC).
In an ideal case, the data in all the pages of a block are usually updated together by writing the updated data to the pages within an unassigned, erased block, and a logical-to-physical block number table is updated with the new address The original block is then available to be erased. However, it is more typical that the data stored in a number of pages less than all of the pages within a given block must be updated. The data stored in the remaining pages of the given block remains unchanged. The probability of this occurring is higher in systems where the number of sectors of data stored per block is higher. One technique now used to accomplish such a partial block update is to write the data of the pages to be updated into a corresponding number of the pages of an unused erased block and then copy the unchanged pages from the original block into pages of the new block. The original block may then be erased and added to an inventory of unused blocks in which data may later be programmed. Another technique similarly writes the updated pages to a new block but eliminates the need to copy the other pages of data into the new block by changing the flags of the pages in the original block which are being updated to indicate they contain obsolete data. Then when the data are read, the updated data read from pages of the new block are combined with the unchanged data read from pages of the original block that are not flagged as obsolete.